Sydney 2013

At one level, I would like these paintings of fractured street surfaces to be thought of as the material of speculative archaeology.Their fragmentation correlates to roads damaged and displaced by coastal storm surges, floods, land slippages etc., the increasingly familiar evidence of extreme weather events. In this context, I see the shattered assemblages as glimpses of the sublime, a growing sense of awe in the face of nature when disturbed.

Other works made in Rome in 2012 also engage with the idea of archaeology. In them I have used cobblestones (‘sanpietrini’) characteristic of the streets and lanes of the old city to construct small dioramas that echo some of the familiar sites of antiquity. Simultaneously, they evoke the forced perspectives favoured by Baroque architects in Rome, such as Borromini’s corridor at the Palazzo Spada. Thus actual bits of road, together with clay replicas in diminished proportions, have become building blocks in my reconstructions of the vestigial edifices of an empire in collapse.

The road has been a core theme in my work for over two decades. In common with many artists, I have found it to be a continuing source of symbolic and formal possibilities. One way or another, this slice of landscape is shared by all humanity.